


ink my skin

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Canon, Finished, Fluff, M/M, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-23
Updated: 2013-01-23
Packaged: 2017-11-26 13:45:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/651120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account





	ink my skin

its one of those nights. (the nights when the butterflies in his stomach are too much and the murmuring of voices from the venue are too loud.) liam feels like he’s submerged in water. maybe he would feel better if he was. he hears niall talking to him and he sees himself taking pills from the blonde, but it’s like he’s on autopilot. he knows he took the pills, but he doesn’t remember taking them. he sees louis coming over to ask him if hes okay, but he cant make himself respond. Its like he’s curled up fetal position inside of his mind while someone else does what he knows he should do. he hears harry’s slow voice flow into his ears, reminding him to “just breathe,” and relaxes a little because yeah. its an hour before a show, _their_ show, on their _world tour_. a fucking world tour. liam should be having the time of his life, laughing and singing and screwing around with his friends, not throwing up backstage while his friends worry about him. 

liams laying in a ball on the backstage couch, tugging on strands of his hair and beating himself up for letting himself get like this when zayn comes over and sits closer than he should. “liam,” he says, dragging the vowels out so liam’s name sounds more like “leeyum”. liam doesn’t say anything, just shifts so his head is in zayn’s lap. zayn runs his bony fingers through liams hair and tries not to move so much. “youre going to be fine, you know,” he says quietly, just for liam. a few moments pass in silence (not really silence, because harry’s still yelling at louis over hair products and nialls still trying to chat up a tech girl and the stage manager is still the stage manager) until zayn tells liam more secrets. “youre my favorite, you know.” “I try to sing like you sometimes, you know.” “you shine the brightest, you know, brighter than even me.” liam doesn’t believe zayn for a second, but he can tell zayn means it. and he feels better.

“do you have a pen?” zayn asks him after a few more minutes, still carding his fingers through liams hair. liam shakes his head because even though theyre the ‘biggest boyband in the world’ he doesn’t carry a pen with him ever, never has, but he knows he should. zayn mumbles a quick “be back in a minute, love” before delicately lifting liams head off his lap and jogging off, most likely to get a pen. 

liam watches harry and louis make eyes at each other from across the room and smiles to himself. he wonders how he ever got stuck with these guys, wonders how he got to live his dream, wonders if any of this is real, wonders because sometimes everything gets a little foggy and it feels like one day liam could wake up and he’d have to wake up early to make it to uni on time. liam cant think of anything worse than not being with these five guys (kids) every second of his life. (maybe not every second of his life, because there are times when liam likes to be alone, when he likes to think or play piano or talk on the phone with his mum without the boys constantly picking at his hair or clothes or face) 

and then zayn is back and hes sitting on liams stomach and pulling liams hand into his lap and he obviously found a pen because hes trying to draw on liams skin with it and liam forgot to count how long zayn was gone for so he could tut at him for being late. “what’re you doing” liam pulls his hand away gently, but zayn just tugs it back and waits for liam to give it up. 

“’m drawin a thing, leave me alone,” he says, and liam could swear that zayns cheeks are tinged with a soft pink but then its gone and zayn is inking liam on that little piece of skin between his index finger and his thumb. the tip of the pen tickles a bit on liams skin, but then its gone and zayn is smiling softly and just for liam. “there” 

liam looks down at his hand and sees a perfect little heart where his thumb joins his index finger and thinks _oh_. zayn is just watching him with the same little smile on his face, and liam can feel a blush crawling up his cheeks. but then they’re being called onstage and he can’t really say anything as theyre running towards a million voices can he? liam smiles at the crowd, though, goes through the songs, doesn’t miss a note, gets lost in the music and then its twitter questions (they’ve always been his favorite). its when harrys in the middle of a (horrible) impersonation of susan boyle that liam looks down at his hands and sees it again. a perfect heart drawn on the skin where his index finger meets his thumb. 

liam cant help the grin that spreads across his face. he knows he shouldn’t, really knows he shouldn’t, but he walks over to where zayns standing anyway and pulls him into a hug. louis ‘aww’s into his mic and niall 'whoop's and harry doesn’t say anything (he has this little smirk on his face) but liam doesn’t care because zayn may be the best and liam honestly should have seen it sooner but it will have to do that hes just noticed now. when he pulls away zayn is looking at him like _what did you do that for_ , and liam will explain better later but for now he just smiles and says “because youre shining the brightest right now, zayn.” zayn just _looks_ and liam _knows_ he gets it and he feels the butterflies in his stomach again but theyre good (oh so good) this time and liam thinks he’ll never get tired of this.


End file.
